Puppets, songs bring little girl's diary to life

As a child, Anne Hills felt at one with nature. But as the Bethlehem woman grew up and become a nationally known folk singer and songwriter, the voices of nature from her youth grew faint.

By chance or fate, a friend of Hills gave her a book based on the 90-year-old diary of a little Oregon girl and Hills was immediately entranced by the nature writings of a precocious 6-year-old named Opal Whiteley.

The book, "The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart," reminded Hills of her once-strong connection to the natural world and it inspired her to record "Beauty Attends: The Heartsongs of Opal Whiteley," in 2006.

The CD has 14 songs on which Opal's words are set to music by Michael Smith, a frequent collaborator of Hills and the composer of Steppenwolf Theater Company's Tony Award-winning production of "The Grapes of Wrath."

The diary has a "transformative nature," Hills says. "It reminds you of what it felt like to be a child and be at one with nature.

Now Hills is bringing Opal's story to the stage in a production called "The Morningtime of Now," which runs May 22-26 at the Ice House in Bethlehem. It combines Hills' music and Opal's story with puppets made by Doug Roysdon of Mock Turtle Marionette Theatre to explore themes of nature and the cycle of life through the eyes of the girl born in 1897.

Hills uses Opal's vision of the "blue hills" as a metaphor for a place close to nature that people are born into and can return to as adults.

"The show carries a message about the inherent wisdom and wonder in a child's awareness of nature," Hills says. "The goal is to get the audience to discover the book."

A best-seller in its time, Opal's diary about her childhood described her imaginative friendships with animals, fairies and the rural landscape. Opal grew up in a lumber camp, and used the natural world as an escape from her harsh childhood.

Hills says the girl had a brain disorder that affected how she used language, giving the diary a unique sound. Opal saw everything as living and named animals and even trees after classical literature in elaborate naming ceremonies.

"She was an amazing child," Hills says. "Imagine, this was published before women even had the right to vote."

In the stories, Opal interacts with lichen folk, hides mice in her petticoat to sneak them in the house, rides her horse, describes the world to a blind girl and often gets in trouble with her Mamma.

"It is such a rich diary, it's hard to chose which parts to use," Hills says. "I think she is one of our national treasures. She was the first real environmentalist and entered the University of Oregon at 16."

Hills says when she decided she wanted to create a stage play from the diary, "puppets just felt the right way to move."

She asked for help from Roysdon, whose work she admired.

Roysdon carved more than 30 puppets from pine to create the human, animal and other characters from the diary. He also created nine puppet stages, each with its own Opal puppet re-creating scenes from the diary. Every Opal puppet has a different expression.

"Puppets bring people together in common places," he says. "Puppets cross barriers and engage childhood-ness, and the link between childhood and nature is something people can't afford to lose."

Among the characters from the diary created by Roysdon are Brave Horatius, Opal's faithful dog; William Shakespeare, the beloved horse Opal rode bareback, and the anthropomorphic trees Wordsworth, Keats and Byron, who recite poetry.

"She was in a little world of her own," Roysdon says. "There's something mythic thing about what this little girl did."

The largest puppet is a three-quarter size Opal, which is manipulated and voiced by Kayla Prestel, who recently completed an apprenticeship at Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem. The puppet acts as narrator and reads the stories from the diary. The large Opal puppet is very expressive.

"I have never before made a puppet with this level of realism," Roysdon says.

The puppet scenes are interspersed with Hills singing songs from her CD, accompanied by musician Jay Ansill, and Hills telling stories of her own life that parallel Opal's story.

Touchstone Theatre actors Mallory DeForest, Jordan Orth and Cathy Restivo operate the other puppets and also are a constant presence on stage representing the "voices of the earth."

Roysdon says Ansill also acts as a sort of a Pied Piper, while Hills compares his role to that of Puck, the mischievous sprite from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Both Hills and Roysdon say this is not just a children's show. In fact, Roysdon says it is "aimed at adults with the expectation that children will also enjoy it."

"I wanted a family show that was sophisticated enough for children and simple enough for adults," says Hills. "My stories are from an adult point of view. I'm the adult giving back and being reminded of being part of the fabric of nature. It works on a lot of different levels."